Along with the three new expansions, Bungie also announced plans for something called the Destiny Content Vault. This is basically a rotational retirement plan for old content that will begin with Beyond Light on September 22, where "less actively played" destinations and activities will be cyclically removed from the main game to make room for new content and old content returning from Destiny 1. In Year 4, Mars, Io, Titan, Mercury, Leviathan and all supported activities will be removed. This is to confirm whether the Zoo and Tribute Hall will be gone along with Leviathan or will remain as part of Nessus.

Also, each year different content will be reintroduced to the live game; according to Bungie, the Content Vault will contain all content that appeared in Destiny 1, meaning that everything is "back" fair game. This will begin in Year 4 as well, with the addition of Destiny 1's Cosmodrome. Then, at some as yet unannounced point in Year 4, the wonderful Vault of Glass raid will also be added.

The reason for the addition of a content vault will come as a surprise to regular players. As Bungie explains, "Destiny 2 has added approximately 25 GB of content each year since launch. So the time it takes to generate a stable update for the game, once all the content has been completed, tested, and ready to go, can literally balloon to days, not hours"

.

As an example, Bungie has revealed that the Warmind campaign accounted for 0.3% of the recent Season of the Worthy playtime; according to Bungie, this results in Felwinter's Lie quest progress being hampered According to Bungie, this has resulted in an increase in bugs such as the recent issue that interfered with the progress of the Felwinter's Lie quest.

"Going forward, our clear goal is to strive to keep the scope and scale of Destiny 2 relatively constant in order to increase agility and ensure that the game is properly supported and maintained," Bungie said. This is consistent with what General Manager Mark Noseworthy said that Year 4 will bring permanence back to Destiny 2's seasonal model.

Here is a breakdown of what will happen at the launch of Year 4:

Return

September 22:

During season 13:

During Year 4:

Leave

September 22:

Bungie further notes that three raids will be playable in Year 4; the PvP map rotation will continue to use a mix of Destiny 1 and 2 maps, but all strikes associated with stored objectives will also be removed.

The studio also confirms that exotics associated with vaults will be available in a new way, although it states that content vaults will not apply to weapons or armor.

This is a huge change to the way Destiny 2 works and I am currently still too busy processing it to have an opinion. On the one hand, things are leaving the game! That is odd. Is the original campaign gone, or is it now going straight from EDZ to Nessus? I don't know! It's strange. On the one hand, the Vault of Glass returns! On the other hand, it's interesting that Bungie is clearly planning for Destiny 2 to come out longer than anyone had anticipated: there have been plenty of rumors about Destiny 3 over the years, but with the announcement of three new expansions, it won't happen until at least 2023, if at all! It seems certain that this will be the case.